ff. 121 (+ 1 parchment and 1 unfoliated original parchment flyleaf at the beginning and 1 unfoliated original and 1 parchment flyleaves at the end)

Form

Parchment codex

Binding

BM/BL in-house. Diced brown calf; gilt edges.

Provenance

The Harley Collection, formed by Robert Harley (b. 1661, d. 1724), 1st earl of Oxford and Mortimer, politician, and Edward Harley (b. 1689, d. 1741), 2nd earl of Oxford and Mortimer, book collector and patron of the arts. Edward Harley bequeathed the library to his widow, Henrietta Cavendish, née Holles (b. 1694, d. 1755) during her lifetime and thereafter to their daughter, Margaret Cavendish Bentinck (b. 1715, d.1785), duchess of Portland; the manuscripts were sold by the Countess and the Duchess in 1753 to the nation for £10,000 (a fraction of their contemporary value) under the Act of Parliament that also established the British Museum; the Harley manuscripts form one of the foundation collections of the British Library.

Notes

The Hours of the Virgin is misbound: after the calendar, the volume starts with Matins of the Hours of the Cross, followed by Terce to Compline, and then Matins of the Hours of the Virgin.

Select bibliography

A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: [n. pub.], 1808-12), I, no. 1211.

Walter de Gray Birch and Henry Jenner, Early Drawings and Illuminations: An Introduction to the Study of Illustrated Manuscripts (London: Bagster and Sons, 1879), p. 16.